SAMARKAND, UZBEKISTAN

Go for Silk Road culture, exquisite buildings and immersive spice markets

Throughout

Samarkand, all the mosques, minarets and mausoleums adorned with repetitious mosaics and floral and geometric ceramic tiles in bright turquoise and shimmering gold are a feast for the eyes. And, perhaps unsurprising for a country that values handicraft so highly, intricate silk Suzani embroidery enhances the simplest of textiles and it’s almost rare to find a wooden pillar or column that isn’t intricately carved. No question the Islamic architecture is breathtaking – but now is the time to visit before the crowds move in. Uzbekistan is on a tourism push and visitor numbers have tripled in a few short years. With its first art biennale on the horizon and a spell as the Islamic world’s new cultural capital (2025), it’s only going to attract more global attention.

All the buzz is catapulting one of the oldest cities in Central Asia back to its heyday, when it was one of the most important stops on the Silk Road. It still produces and intercepts exotic goods and there are few better places to browse than Siyob Bazaar, where mounds of sweets are piled high beneath the wood-carved roof: homemade nougat, halva, walnut-stuffed dates and a rock sugar known as navat, which is made from grape juice and concentrated sugar syrup and used to sweeten tea. It’s a cuisine that especially lends itself to beautiful breakfasts, with fresh figs, rose petal jams, delicate pastries – the buffet breakfast at L’Argamak Hotel is a particularly good example. Spice market tours, cooking classes and tea-house trips might follow, as the best way to experience the jewel of the Spice Route.